by Terry Mixon
“I’m not the type to hit on another woman’s man. Neither you nor Angela has anything to worry about on that account. But I do want to get to know you better because I think that your doppelgänger and I would be perfect for one another.
“I like you a lot, Carl, and I think I’d like him. You’d have to be the one to tell me if you think he’d feel the same. I suspect your relationship with Kelsey would be somewhat different if you’d never met. Tell me how he’d react to me slowly getting to know him and building a relationship. Could the two of us make something like that work?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been with Kelsey for so long that I see her more like a crazy sister than a woman, so I’m not sure that you should trust my feelings at this point. You’re going to have to make the decision about what makes sense for you to do.
“What I can tell you is that he’s not going to be comfortable around a princess. You’re going to have to do a lot of work to become his friend before you try to become more. It’s not exactly like he’s got a lot of dating experience, and he’s going to be intimidated. Think of him like a wild horse that you have to break to the saddle.”
His face reddened when she grinned. “Maybe that wasn’t the best analogy.”
She laughed. “I think that has a lot of interesting possibilities for me to think about.”
Then she sobered. “Someone like you could be the difference between life and death for the New Terran Empire in my universe. And, to be frank, someone like you would make an excellent consort for me.
“I’m not the warrior she is. I need someone like you, a scholar who’s brilliant and has wide-ranging interests that appeal to me. I won’t know until I meet you there, but yes, I’ve made the decision that I’m going to be looking at your doppelgänger as soon as I get back to my universe and sneak onto Avalon.
“By now, it’s going to be under AI control. If I can bring back enough information and technology, we can start a guerrilla war and fight our way back. That makes your doppelgänger perfect for me.
“And I really do like you. That’s a huge bonus. If I had to forge a relationship for the good of the Empire, I’d do it. If it can bring me a companion that I want to spend time with and that I truly like, could I ask for anything more?”
Carl nodded slowly. “I can see it. I think my doppelgänger will find you appealing, but you’re going to have to go slow, just like I said.”
He considered her intensely for a few moments. “I’m not really supposed to say anything about this, but I think there’s something we can do for you that will make a difference back in your universe. Avalon’s going to be isolated because of its distance from the Rebel Empire, so even though they’ve only recently conquered it, the Rebel Empire won’t have put as many ships there as they probably should.
“There are ways that we can help you deal with something like that. Technologies that we’ve built that might help protect Avalon against them. I’ll have to talk to Admiral Mertz and Kelsey to be sure, but I think you can do it, particularly if you’ve got my doppelgänger on your side.”
Her heart pounded harder in her chest. She really hoped he was right.
Knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to pull any more information out of him until he’d spoken with the others, she hefted both sets of armor while he gathered the equipment that he was going to need. The two of them then headed down toward the lower levels.
Jared accompanied Mordechai back to his office. The few hours they’d spent together over lunch had been very productive, but they hadn’t done more than pass ideas back and forth.
The older man wanted his fusion plant back. He didn’t know who’d stolen it, and neither did Jared, but that didn’t matter. If Jared wanted the cache of Marine Raider equipment, they were going to have to figure out who’d taken it and get them to return it to Frankfort.
Jared wanted the Marine Raider equipment. Just the powered armor alone would be sufficient to get Kelsey, Julia, and Talbot fully combat capable. They’d once again be a force worthy of taking out almost any obstruction they came across.
The other weapons and supplies would make their job of getting off this planet easier, too. It wouldn’t help them get back to Persephone, but that was a problem for another day.
Mordechai leaned back in his chair and gave Jared a long, considering look. “Your man says that he can get life support restored so that we can access the equipment and supplies on the lowest levels. I’m more than willing to trade some of the Marine Raider equipment for that accomplishment.
“As I’ve already passed along to the guard I’ve placed outside the room, I’m allowing him the use of the armor and whatever supplies he needs to complete his work. Once it’s done, I’ll make that trade permanent and give you some other equipment that will assist you in your mission of finding those that stole our fusion plant and making them return it.
“Once you’ve managed to convince them to do so, and the fusion plant is set up and operational, then all of the equipment and supplies inside the cache are yours. That’s the deal that I’m willing to offer.”
Jared knew he wasn’t going to get a better offer.
“I accept. We’ll do everything within our power to bring your fusion plant back and get it operational for you. I’m not sure we can convince them to provide maintenance, but if not, we can do what we can to train your people, though our time is short.”
He didn’t know how he’d convince the thieves to return the fusion plant, but they’d overcome difficult situations before. So long as he could find these others and learn more about them, there was a possibility that they could come to an arrangement.
If not, he might just have to steal the fusion plant back.
“Have you heard from Kelsey and Talbot?” he asked, changing the subject.
The older man nodded. “They managed to draw the enemy into chasing them. My scouts report that there has been some skirmishing along the way and that she was injured, but our people in the buildings fired enough shots into their pursuers to keep them back far enough for them to flee.
“At this moment, they’re headed toward the trap. For the life of me, I can’t imagine what she did to get all of those people chasing her. It seems like your sister has a gift for arousing the anger of her enemies.”
Jared was worried about Kelsey’s injury, but he knew how tough she was. Not only was she a Marine Raider—with all of the enhancements and augmentation that afforded her—but she was mentally tough. If she was still moving, then she wasn’t very badly hurt.
At least that’s what he told himself.
“How far away from the trap are they?”
“They’ll be there within half an hour. It really depends on how direct a course they take. If the enemy forces them into diverting, then they might have to take a longer route. If the enemy starts slowing down, she’s going to circle back and draw them into pursuit again.
“Even while they’re doing that, our people are moving around the outskirts of the enemy so that they can surround them once they find themselves in our trap. No matter what happens, they’re going to be too deep inside Frankfort to escape.
“They might have the numbers to beat us in a straight-up fight, but we have sufficient weaponry to make sure that we win in this environment. Killing many of them in this trap will save my people from unneeded injury or death. For that, I am indebted to you.”
“What will you do once you beat them here?” Jared asked curiously. “They’ve got a lot of horsemen outside the city, and those can still be a problem.”
The older man nodded. “Can we conquer their city? No. Can we set the rest of it on fire and drive them farther away? Yes. We’ll use rockets and burn them out.”
Even though doing something like that was hard to stomach, the tactician inside Jared understood why it needed to be done.
Changing subjects, Jared leaned forward and put his elbows on the arms of his chair. “Once Carl gets the life-support systems on the lowest levels o
perational, what comes next?”
“I think that depends on you,” the old man said. “Are you prepared to begin your exploration farther up the tunnels? If you can summon the train that the thieves used, perhaps you can use it to find them.
“As for us, my people and I will move the supplies they’ve gathered below to somewhere less accessible should they come back. At any point, those who turned the power on can turn it back off again, so I don’t want to lose this opportunity to recover what is ours.”
“I hope you realize that you and these people might still be able to come to some type of agreement,” Jared said. “They have enough technical know-how to completely disassemble and remove a fusion plant. They could help you rebuild this city.
“They also seem to be the type that can help salvage other parts of your city for reuse. If they’ve done this in other places, then they certainly have the experience. We won’t really know until we get a chance to see who we’re dealing with, but there’s a potential partnership there if you can get past the fact that they stole from you.
“What I urge you to remember is that they may not have known there were still decent people in this city. They might have come the way they did to avoid the horde. If that’s who they thought controlled Frankfort, it wasn’t meant to be an insult to you or your people.”
He licked his lips slightly. “Forgive me for saying so, but you and your people seem like the kind that might hold grudges. In this case, if you’re looking for a true allegiance that might offer benefit to your people, perhaps you should allow them to prove themselves to you.”
The other man chuckled. “We’re not as bad as you seem to think we are, Admiral. Once you’ve made contact and we have an opportunity to speak with them, I feel confident that some type of arrangement will eventually be worked out.
“The only thing that I’m insisting you accomplish before that happens is to get them to return our fusion plant and shielding to us, restore it to the condition that it was in before they took it, and make it operational.”
He held up a hand before Jared could respond. “I know that we don’t have the skill to operate such a high-technology device. That’s where the negotiation with the others will come in. I believe that we can come to an arrangement in which they provide the technological know-how to maintain the fusion plant and teach us to do so in exchange for services we can offer.
“Rest assured that I will not allow my pique at the way they’ve treated us to harm the long-term prospects of my people. Focus on these first steps, Admiral Mertz. If you’re going to get to the Imperial Palace, you must find these people. I suggest that you hope that they’re not as bad as you thought we were when we first met.”
Jared repressed a shudder at that. “Let’s hope not. We’ve already had enough things go wrong on this mission. Just once, I’d like to have something go right.”
Mordechai gave him a lopsided smile. “Exactly how likely is that?”
“Damned unlikely,” he muttered darkly. “Almost impossible, really.”
Even as the other man chuckled, Jared wished he’d been joking. With their luck, they were still at least one big fight away from getting to the Imperial Palace. He could feel it deep in his bones.
23
Talbot raced forward with Kelsey over his shoulder, sprinting around corners and dodging to the other side of open areas to keep the enemy from getting a lock on them as they fled. He’d already spent the last twenty minutes running toward the trap and had been grateful that a couple of snipers along the way had fired shots that kept the screaming mass of horde warriors from quite catching up with them.
Not that he thought they’d be able to manage that for much longer. Once the enemy made a concerted effort to catch up, he’d have to put on a dash of speed, using his augmentation to open up the distance, and then the jig would be up.
Once they knew that he could’ve gotten away any time, they’d know this was a trap. The only thing making this trick possible was their unthinking rage. If they ever started using their brains, they’d quickly regroup and retreat to their camp.
They might even leave the city, and that would deny the locals the opportunity to end this conflict for the next couple of decades.
Using the map overlay function built into his implants, he knew they were only a couple of turns and one good dash away from the trap. He’d been unable to see that anything was buried under the ground when the locals had shown them the area, but considering how well they’d hidden the doors in their tunnels and their ambush sites behind solid walls, he had no doubt that the bombs were there.
As he rounded the final corner and entered the straightaway toward where the trap lay, a woman shouted down at him from one of the buildings. “Horsemen are circling around to stop you! Hurry up!”
He didn’t bother responding, because the time had come to run. If they got pinned in the area with the bombs, the defenders probably wouldn’t hesitate to trigger the explosives, even if he and Kelsey were right in the middle of them.
His only hope at this point was to get Kelsey past the area where the bombs were hidden and hope that the horde warriors kept coming. If they did, he could probably evade the horsemen.
That was a good plan—or at least he thought so, right up until the horsemen came around the corner just past the area where the explosives were planted. There must’ve been fifty of them, and there was no way that he and Kelsey were getting past them.
They couldn’t retreat with all of the foot soldiers closing in behind them, but they weren’t cut off completely just yet. If they really had to, they could run into one of the buildings and make their way into the tunnels.
If they did that, though, it wouldn’t draw everybody possible into the kill zone. Talbot had to draw this out as long as he possibly could before they ran. If he didn’t execute this flawlessly, they were completely and utterly screwed.
“So, you think you’ve got us?” he shouted at the horsemen. “You think this is all we have? We’ll keep killing you until we drop.”
Those were brave words that he hoped drew a lot of people toward them. Most people would’ve just stood off at bow range and opened fire.
A cruel enemy, on the other hand, would want to surround them so tightly that they couldn’t help but see the fate that awaited them. Perhaps they’d even want to capture them alive so that they could be fed into the torture machine that the horde favored.
Personally, that was what he expected. The horde would lose people just to have the opportunity to torture him and Kelsey.
He turned slowly in place, his pistol in hand. Kelsey had hers ready as well, but he doubted they had more than a couple of magazines left between them. When compared to the number of people slowly filling the area, it wasn’t going to be enough.
Not even close.
It was getting crowded between the buildings, with the enemy jockeying for position and packing themselves in tightly. No matter how this turned out, the explosives were going to take a deadly toll on the horde.
A large man, dressed in black armor, dismounted and took off his helmet. Talbot recognized him as the man that Julia had spoken to inside the horde city. He’d pegged the fellow as an officer of some kind.
Now that handsome face was contorted with rage. “You’ve killed the king, his family, and all the high nobles. We’re going to take you back to the city and make you regret that. You’re going to live for weeks as we take your bodies apart one piece at a time.
“Just when you think death is inescapable, we’ll find a way to keep you alive for just a little bit longer. The agonies that you’ll suffer will be unspeakable, and I’ll savor each and every scream I tear from your throats.”
Talbot simply grinned at the man. “Hard pass.”
Without waiting for a response, he spun Kelsey off of his shoulder and hurled her through the shattered windows of the building beside them, easily getting her light form onto the third floor.
Even as the enemy charged t
oward him, Talbot took two quick steps forward, crouched, and levered his powerful muscles to leap after her. He almost didn’t make it, but his hands just managed to grab the ledge outside where the window had once been on the same floor where Kelsey had landed.
She was there a second later, grabbing him by the wrists and yanking him into the building. What looked like a storm of arrows flew through the air where they’d just been, and his side ached with the impact of hitting the floor.
The two of them hobbled for the stairwell in the center of the building. If they didn’t beat the horde down into the ground, the enemy would cut them off inside the building, and they’d die. Worse, the explosives that were about to go off might kill them too.
They barely made it fifteen meters into the building before the world went insane. The blast was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It picked him up and slammed him through an interior wall.
Then it felt as if the building were coming apart. Talbot could hear the groaning of steel and other materials as they bent, and it sounded as if the upper floors were coming down.
Even as he was thinking that they were screwed and struggling to get to his feet, Kelsey put an arm around his waist and picked him up off the floor, obviously still favoring her injured leg but not letting it slow her down.
“Hang on!” she shouted.
Even as the building shook and parts of it started to fall, she raced to the far side of the building and jumped through the shattered window.
The impact was brutal, and the pain in his side exploded. It didn’t feel like broken ribs, though. It felt worse.
Even as she dragged him to his feet, the building behind them began crumbling.
With a wall of debris racing up behind them, they ran into the building ahead of them and barely made it inside before a wash of debris slammed against the side of the building and brought the ceiling down on their heads.
